Tara decided to lead a sizeable convoy down the Ohio River and then out west with the intent of distributing pre-manufactured Agribines and other equipment to survivors. Her intent was to help other groups “get on their feet” in terms of energy and heating needs. Ideally this would curtail population-loss. 

This project, which came to be known as “The Widow’s Passage” was the first well-documented exploration of Post-Burnout America. It remains unique amongst expeditions of its geographic breadth for being almost entirely non-violent. 

To begin with, the convoy sported several white flags and other peaceful descriptors. Most of the people they encountered had not seen a non-militant convoy since before the Burnout and eagerly welcomed Tara. 

By the spring of 2031, Tara’s convoy had reached Pueblo, Colorado. After setting up a permanent base of operations in the city, she dispatched two more convoys along the I-25. One would travel north, merge onto the I-90 and try to return to Rillerman’s compound. The other would travel south, merge onto the I-40, reach Los Angeles, and travel East along the I-10 or I-20. 

Tara travelled between these convoys as a sort of envoy. At first, the work was purely an effort to spread hope and restore faith in humanity. They would organize a public meeting to tell of George’s sacrifice and the Agribine, and then demonstrate the system’s capabilities. Afterwards, Tara and her close associates would have a private meeting with the faction’s leaders. There, they would discuss the faction’s immediate needs and any threats they faced. Depending on the faction’s situation, the convoy would either linger to help gather resources or alter their course to scout out an area that the faction assumed was hostile. Frequently, a group would be involved in skirmishes with a neighbor over a resource-rich area. Neither group could capture or exterminate their rival without risking unacceptable losses. When faced with this situation in the Missouri towns of Elsberry and Eolia, Tara gave both groups an Agribine and a comparable amount of supplies. Five months later, she received word that the skirmishes between the towns were continuing. When meeting with the leadership of Jefferson City, who were beset by several local rivals, she pursued a different strategy. She gave Jefferson an Agribine, proceeded to Westphalia, Rocheport, and Florence, and convinced those factions that it was in their mutual interest to join with Jefferson City. By arguing that Jefferson had technological superiority with their Agribine, Tara said further conflict would only result in defeat. As the convoy headed west, she continued to tell survivors to align with Jefferson City. Two months later, a messenger from Jefferson said that they had secured most of Missouri under what would be known as the “Spring-City Triumvirate”. Almost all of the acquisitions had been peaceful. Encouraged by these developments, Tara created another “federation” on her way to Pueblo while formalizing her theory. 

Written in journal entries by Tara with notes from collaborators, “Passage-Theory” is one of the earliest MTs and remains one of the most unique due to its limited viability. It boils down to the following points:

• These circumstances will only exist for a few years after the collapse of civilization. 
• Due to the recent collapse of civilization, groups are extremely receptive to belief in the supernatural, miracles, and other forms of spiritual-conditioning.
• Due to resource-scarcity, conflict between equally matched groups is inevitable. 
• Due to resource-scarcity, factions are willing to surrender their political independence to a more powerful faction in exchange for resources.
• Due to resource-scarcity it is in every faction’s interest to increase their population and territory as quickly as possible. 
• Factions with a distinct technological advantage will absorb lesser factions— and they will do so peacefully to avoid risking their personnel. 
• Due to the fear of a militarily powerful faction, it is in every faction’s interest to form alliances. 

As she continued practicing this theory, Tara considered the maximum scale to which it could be applied. While subjugating the whole country under a single power would be impossible, she theorized that America could be divided into a handful of large federations that were similar to the Triumvirate. By consolidating survivors into these federations, skirmish-level fighting over resources would be discouraged or stop entirely. However, the federations themselves would be drawn to conflict with one another, which could eventually lead to wars. 

Aware of these risks, Tara continued “sculpting” remote communities of survivors into larger collectives by distributing Agribines. By 2035, her dream was realized with NUMBER of these “federations” scattered throughout middle America. By then, the region was already becoming known as the “Passage-Lands”, and those federations were the progenitors of the Great Clans. 

The Widow’s Passage is regarded (and confirmed by Tara’s journals), as a Faustian bargain. By distributing a hyper-adaptive system like the Agribine, Tara saved years of technological redevelopment and suffering for a majority of the population. By deliberately organizing large, oppositional states, she fueled industrial growth and cultural distinction through competition. 

However, these choices guaranteed that the resulting civilizations would be inherently war-like and poised for a conflict at the end of the Hungry Years. Many blame Tara and her activities for “teeing up” the Great Struggle. Nevertheless the legacy of the Widow’s Passage continues to affect the continent and its inhabitants in many ways:

• According to Formers, most of the world had skirmish-level fighting between surviving pockets for a handful of years. But after this period, they settled into agrarian, non-industrial lifestyles and ultimately abandoned redevelopment. While there are pockets of the world that are at a similar technological level, no one has it at the same scale as America. But Formers does not attribute this exclusively to the Widow’s Passage. They believe that the country’s unusually aggressive redevelopment was catalyzed by its unusually aggressive collapse. 
• Upon hearing of Passage-Theory, Rillerman drew up plans for what would become the Guild. He feared that Tara’s experiment, and the self-sustaining nature of the Agribine, would result in marauding factions being unleashed on the country. Thus he devised an interdependent and stationary vision of Post-Burnout civilization to counteract whatever Tara produced. 
• Although he is Graler’s direct descendant, Maxwell Lewis cites Tara as being a greater inspiration to his activities, saying “Graler took advantage of an obvious, albeit bleak situation, Tara took the time to read an incredibly complex scenario and ended up doing something that no one else could even imagine.” 
• Verdance used the routes established by the Widow’s Passage to quickly spread their preachers and mystics across the country.